Death of Internet

We lost internet and the router in our apartment. Only, Rup and I are willing to pay for the internet so, no more internet for us, woo hoo! We have to resort to an awesome internet cafe, which means no more pics and limited blogging. Last week, we took a ferry to an island close to us and saw the fort where the army trains. We're finally getting a chance to hang out with trainees from other countries (Russia, Poland, Germany, China, UK, Brazil, Ghana, Niger), now that 5 trainees from Yale left. We've also been working diligently on marketing our organization. Alright, that's it for now.

-V Pizzle

Yoyo

Hey guys,

So I had plenty of pictures to post, but I think someone nabbed my camera out of my back pack in the last couple days, so alas I do not have pics.

However, I do have some really funny quotes from my Polish friend Janucz (pronounced YA-noo-sh)... When referring to hitting on girls at a club [insert polish accent here]:

"Stefanie, why did not come out to the clubs eh? Everytime I want to hunt for you, you---ehhhh are never around. You are forcing me to hunting for other girls..."

Also, when describing approaching a girl at a club - referring to grinding:

"So as I made my move to do the uhhh love dance with her"


haha and I've gotten dozens of examples of the funny English I hear over here. Its actually funny because I am like the go to guy for speaking English, everyone always asks me how to say/spell certain words. Also everyone here speaks at least like 3 (often 4) languages fluently... it makes me feel kinda lame for knowing english, and partially gujarati/spanish.

I was first to afraid to drink in Delhi, but since I have gotten more comfortable with my environment I went to the club at a 5-star hotel. You see in India, every 5-star hotel has a club, and they generally are the best clubs you can go to. The cover just to get in was 3,000 rupees which is equal to $60... yes this place was super expensive, but we all got in (~25 of us) cuz we knew the DJ, whose now a friend of mine.

I will make another post soon regarding what i've been up to the last 2 weekends.

- Munj

allo

Hello kiddos,

Since I am too lazy to write about the last couple of days, I have instead attached some pictures:



A picture of T5, one of our classes last week. We rotate classes every couple of days, so that we can meet all of the students here. And yep, I closed my eyes to blend in with my students....



One our two days off, we stayed in Beijing for two nights. This is a picture from Factory 798, an awesome urban art district in Beijing.



One of the galleries in Factory 798. The idea behind these artworks is to paint on photographs to create one cohesive unit.



An acrobatic show we saw. Not particular impressed, but it was decent. I don't have too many pictures from our Beijing excursion because the other interns take all the pictures...


The company took us sightseeing. This is the view from Shanhaiguan, part of the Great Wall.



Getting chummy with statues, as usual.



Evening activities with the students usually include awkward pictures such as this one.



A picture of all the interns on the night of the opening ceremony. Fun stuff.

- Willa

A Visit to Remember

The visit to the slums was an eye-opening experience. We went to an area called Dharavi, which is supposedly the largest slum in the world and where Slumdog Millionaire was partly shot. We started off on a main market street, and took a turn into a small alley, and that's when the experience began. But before that, while we were walking from our train platform, then on the main street and then into the alley, there was this guy with the creepiest smile ever following us. At one point, he was on the phone while keeping an eye on us. Rup was convinced that he was working for the gangsters and wanted to take advantage of us foreigners (we were with 5 other white people). It turned out to be nothing, but kinda scary at the time. Anyways, we saw a lot of waste-processing being done. Dharavi is one of the main recycling centers of Mumbai (a lot bigger than any government agency). We walked through these narrow streets where it was hard to walk side-by-side with anyone else. We went to the rooftop of a house where we could see a lot of Dharavi houses. We saw a sweatshop (insanely small for the amount of clothes they produce), a bakery, and many other industries. On the main street, 4 of us almost got killed by motorcycles and cars that don't care about people walking on the road. We saw kids dancing to music (I think for a wedding), kids playing badminton, a snake-charmer/comedian, movie theater the size of our kitchen, and many more things that I never would've expected due to the tough living conditions. It was one of the places you have to visit to really understand the large wealth disparities that exist here in Mumbai.

-V

P.S.- We went to the Haji Ali mosque after the Dharavi visit. It is the most famous mosque in Mumbai.

A couple of Haji Ali Mosque pics:

In front of the Haji Ali Mosque. The way to get there is long and is surrounded by the sea on both sides.

Thousands of people on their way to the Mosque.

Pictures from Dharavi:

On a side street at the end of Dharavi is this temple. It has sculptures of all the Hindu gods and goddesses (I think).

Little kids dancing to music. They wanted me to join them, but I didn't have my dancing shoes on.

On the roof top of a house in Dharavi.

Walking through the residential area. This street is one of the wider ones that they have.

Metal-recycling factory. Apparently, we are not supposed to take pictures in here.

Some random pics that I should've put up a while back:

Star Bazaar. Those escalators are dangerous if you are not careful.

The Lobby of the famous Taj Hotel. The bathroom service is sick.

Gateway of India at night. Can't really see much, but it's the best I got.

Riding the train on the side like Mumbaikars do. Notice that the train not crowded (you rarely find this).

Street Lights

My computer is back in business (sorta, sound has some static, not as fast as before). Anywho, the past week or so has been quite eventful. We went to South Mumbai on Saturday to visit Anup and Jessie (did sightseeing, etc.). Then suddenly, I got really sick for a few days. We've been working pretty hard this past week in terms of creating a database system for our organization, having marketing strategies, blah blah blah. As much as it is fun to go out to clubs, bars, and tourist attractions, the best place to be in Mumbai is just being outside and seeing the people. There is a road with car repair shops and out of the three lanes on that side of the road, about one and a half are taken up by cars being repaired. You see guys holding hands, guys having their pinkies locked when they cross the streets, street dogs sleeping on the median of the road, tall buildings being built right next to the slums, the slum-dwellers getting their shower in when it rains, and so many more that i can't remember (yeah, even with my memory). Sorry I don't have any British lingo, even though we are living with a British dude. But, he did use "godsend" to describe an Indian dish.

Interlocked pinkies,
V

my post is more interesting than everyone else's

Hello all,

Since arriving at Nandaihe, I have picked up some cool new British lingo that I hope to regularly utilize:
- Ice lolly: perhaps my favorite word ever--it means popsicle.
- Bint: bitch, but to a lesser degree (maybe it's a combination of bitch and cunt?)
- Twat: idiot.
- Dodgy: sketch, creepy.

All I eat these days is peanut butter (combined with either bread, bananas, jelly, or animal crackers depending on how creative I feel), ramen, ice cream, and beer. We are going to a Brazilian steakhouse that has all you can eat steak and beer for $6! Amaaazing. Other than that, I've just been doing the work-sleep-play-sleep routine day after day. I am also teaching the Chinese students some very useful slang: party pooper, awkward (turtle), privates, etc etc. Did you know that in addition to awkward turtle, there's the awkward turkey and the awkward moose? Check this out: http://www.awkwardmoose.net/

- Willa

Warning: Interesting material (don't laugh too hard)

Yo yo yo,

It's been a while since I blogged, because the hard drive on my computer died. Well in the past few days, I've partied with Munj, Pratik, and of course Ruppy, in INDIA. Anup, Jessie, and other Pune people are coming here tonight so that'll be fun. Rup and I visited our village site again on Thursday. Basically, we went there, had some chai, talked with a few people for 30 minutes, had lunch, napped for 2 hours, and then came back and had dinner with the chairman, board member, and their families. This was the longest "work" day for us so far in terms of time. But, we are finally getting assignments for work so, things will start to pick up. It rained only for like 30 minutes today, which is amazing (and the Sun was out for a little bit!). Also, there was a high tide today, highest in 83 years (5 meters). Aight that's it for now.

-I'm amazing